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Wii Vitality Sensor Shows No Signs of Life

In an investors' discussion with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, the man behind Nintendo confirmed that the Wii Vitality Sensor is dead.

Amusingly, the Wii peripheral, which is designed to detect life readings via a finger clip, is no more. Iwata highlighted to investors that "after a large-scale test of a prototype inside the company, we found out that for some people the sensor did not work as expected".

Nintendo were considering releasing the product that worked for 9/10 testers but Iwata admitted "knowing that a product has a problem we should not launch it for the sole reason that we have already announced it".

What are your thoughts on the news - should Nintendo have released the Wii Vitality Sensor?

I am glad about this, i can't imagine that it would have been particularly utilised anyway, perhaps for things like Wii Fit and a novelty addition for one or two other games but who would want to actually clip this to your body when there are other technologies that can do this in a less intrusive way!

Darkflame said:Meanwhile, Microsofts new Kinect has a camera that can tell your pulse just by looking at you.

But what standard is Microsoft holding that to?
Is it the 10/10 requirement that Nintendo wanted or does it do the same 9/10 the Vitality Sensor could (or less)?

Not sure.
I *think* Nintendos sensor worked by reflected light through the figure - the same technique doctors use these days, and can be reproduced by mobile phone apps too. Light shines out, camera senses the difference in color as the blood pass's though in pulses.

Microsofts works more directly - it sense's the color changes without needing the light shining.